Bony fish specimens from the Eocene of Virginia

[MarcoSr]

A number of Eocene bony fish specimens from Virginia that I collected and donated to the Smithsonian are described in an article by Dr. Robert E. Weems “ADDITIONS TO THE BONY FISH FAUNA FROM THE EARLY EOCENE NANJEMOY  FORMATION OF MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA (U.S.A)” published in The Mosasaur Volume XI June 2020.

 

I collected and donated the following specimens shown in the below figures:

 

4D thru 4F:

 

 

 

5A, 5C, 5D, 5E:

 

 

 

6A, 6B, 6G, 6H

:

 

 

 

7B:

 

 

 

8A, 8B:

 

 

 

Marco Sr.

[grandpa]

Bravo, Sir!  Thank you for your generosity and contribution to science. 

[jpc]

thumbs up emoji.  

[digit]

 

Very nice! Some interesting specimens pictured there.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[MarcoSr]

1 hour ago, grandpa said:

Bravo, Sir!  Thank you for your generosity and contribution to science. 

 

1 hour ago, jpc said:

thumbs up emoji.  

 

3 minutes ago, digit said:

 

Very nice! Some interesting specimens pictured there.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

Thank you.  I have donated a good number of specimens (over 225,000) from the Eocene of Virginia to five different museums.  Four papers have already been written on them.  There are a number of other papers in progress.  However, Covid -19 slowed the process down dramatically.  As other papers get published, I'll make posts like this one.

 

Marco Sr. 

 

[JohnJ]

Thanks for continuing to advance the science, @MarcoSr.

 

[Miocene_Mason]

Awesome job @MarcoSr, that will be extraordinarily helpful for generations to come! I already see some familiars

[Al Dente]

Congrats. It looks like a very diverse fish fauna.

[MarcoSr]

2 hours ago, Al Dente said:

Congrats. It looks like a very diverse fish fauna.

 

It is very diverse.  What I'm really waiting for is the papers on the fish (shark, ray, bony fish) vertebrae.  I've donated over 30,000 bony fish vertebrae and over 5,000 shark and ray vertebrae.  So the researchers have a very large sample of specimens to look at.  I'm hoping for a few comprehensive papers that could be used to ID Eocene fish vertebrae.

 

Marco Sr. 

[MarcoSr]

11 hours ago, JohnJ said:

Thanks for continuing to advance the science, @MarcoSr.

 

 

11 hours ago, WhodamanHD said:

Awesome job @MarcoSr, that will be extraordinarily helpful for generations to come! I already see some familiars

 

I'm still donating material from the Eocene of Virginia.  A plant researcher from the Smithsonian is coming to my house to pick up hundreds of Eocene fruit and seed and lignitized wood specimens.  I'm also giving to him 5 gallons of processed Eocene matrix (I've already searched and pulled from this matrix the vertebrate specimens) that contain hundreds and maybe even thousands of additional plant specimens.  He will have a research assistant search this matrix.

 

Marco Sr.

[Shellseeker]

1 hour ago, MarcoSr said:

 

 

I'm still donating material from the Eocene of Virginia.  A plant researcher from the Smithsonian is coming to my house to pick up hundreds of Eocene fruit and seed and lignitized wood specimens.  I'm also giving to him 5 gallons of processed Eocene matrix (I've already searched and pulled from this matrix the vertebrate specimens) that contain hundreds and maybe even thousands of additional plant specimens.  He will have a research assistant search this matrix.

 

Marco Sr.

Somewhat like the focus of our pursuits, it is what you leave behind that counts. Kudos.

[MarcoSr]

1 hour ago, Shellseeker said:

Somewhat like the focus of our pursuits, it is what you leave behind that counts. Kudos.

 

Although life long fossil collectors, my sons aren't really interested in my micro fossils.  At 70 now I'm trying to find a good museum home for a lot of my specimens.  I'm trying to get them to researchers who have an interest in them.  I spent a lot of time and effort collecting them.  Hopefully at least some of them can advance science a bit.

 

Marco Sr.

[Thecosmilia Trichitoma]

I recently read that 90 to 95% of important fossil discoveries are made by amateur collectors who just love fossils! Hobbyists are the backbone of paleontology, as well as many other natural sciences. The TFF can introduce people to the amazing world of fossils, and help the scientific field of Paleontology expand. Congratulations on your amazing donation.

[Boesse]

Congratulations to Rob on getting this published, and congratulations on getting so many of your 1) fossils into museum collections and 2) into a peer reviewed study! Just fantastic. Nice job!

[MarcoSr]

7 hours ago, Boesse said:

Congratulations to Rob on getting this published, and congratulations on getting so many of your 1) fossils into museum collections and 2) into a peer reviewed study! Just fantastic. Nice job!

 

I was really surprised that Rob was able to get his article published.  The Smithsonian was great in giving Rob the USNM numbers for my specimens.  The Smithsonian pretty much stopped accepting any packages with specimen donations because of Covid-19.  Luckily we had all given our specimens directly to Rob.  One paper that I was really looking forward to stopped completely because of Covid-19.  It will be on a partial Eocene Omomyid primate jaw that I found in Virginia.  The researcher couldn't examine comparable specimens because the museums were closed and he couldn't use lab equipment to image/measure the specimen because his university was closed.

 

Marco Sr.

[MarcoSr]

9 hours ago, Thecosmilia Trichitoma said:

I recently read that 90 to 95% of important fossil discoveries are made by amateur collectors who just love fossils! Hobbyists are the backbone of paleontology, as well as many other natural sciences. The TFF can introduce people to the amazing world of fossils, and help the scientific field of Paleontology expand. Congratulations on your amazing donation.

 

As an amateur collector I really enjoy/enjoyed working with the different researchers who are/were studying and describing specimens that I've found.  It is also nice to be able to send pictures to experts and get professional opinions on specimens.  I'm currently working with ten different researchers (mammal, amphibian, squamate, bird, shark & ray, fish, plant).

 

Marco Sr.

[old bones]

Awesome, Marco Sr..

[MarcoSr]

22 minutes ago, old bones said:

Awesome, Marco Sr..

 

Thank you.  It is nice to find specimens that are of scientific interest.

 

Marco Sr.